Green Tech

TechNet has flown in executives from several tech companies to lobby Congress on Wednesday to act on the group's top priorities, most of which are focused on boosting U.S innovation and competitiveness.

Among those in town for TechNet's 10th annual Washington visit include Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers, Sybase Chairman and CEO John Chen, and eHealth Chairman and CEO Gary Lauer.

More than 40 TechNet executives will be meeting with lawmakers from both parties to push for action on investment in research and development; clean energy technologies; tax and immigration reform; expanding free trade; and extending the research and development tax credit, which expired at the end of 2011.

The group also will be pushing lawmakers to pass legislation to free up more spectrum for wireless broadband technologies and to continue to oppose anti-piracy legislation that critics say could harm the integrity of the Internet and innovation.

TechNet has joined several leading tech groups and companies in opposing the two controversial bills, the Senate's Protect IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House, aimed at curbing piracy and counterfeiting on foreign websites. The group is scheduled to meet with two of the leading congressional opponents of those bills, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to discuss the issue.

Among the many other lawmakers the executives are scheduled to meet with Wednesday include Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. The group also has plans to meet with Treasury Department officials and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk.

The TechNet executives also have meetings scheduled with representatives from President Obama's re-election campaign and the campaigns of GOP presidential contenders Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum.

While most of the usual stakeholders have weighed in on whether federal regulators should back AT&T's bid to buy rival T-Mobile USA, one unlikely player to give its two cents is the Sierra Club.

The group sent a letter Wednesday to members of Congress "to express optimism about the potential expansion of broadband that the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile provides," though it did not explicitly say if it supports approval of the deal.

"Expansion of broadband technologies to rural America brings a vital 21st century infrastructure to all our communities and will conserve energy by eliminating carbon emissions related to travel and promote other efficiencies through smart grids and smart meters accessed through broadband," Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune wrote. "As regulators examine this transaction, they should consider these values in their deliberations."

The group has, been pushing for greater broadband access as part of the Blue-Green Alliance, a coalition of environmental and organized labor groups.

Margrete Strand Rangnes, director of Sierra Club's labor and trade program, said her group believes that if the merger is structured right, it could provide an important opportunity to increase broadband deployment.

The Communications Workers of America also belongs to the alliance and has come out in support of the merger. The CWA represents more than 40,000 AT&T wireless workers.

Many public interest groups and some lawmakers, however, oppose the merger, saying it will stifle innovation and competition in the wireless market and lead to higher prices for consumers and a likely loss of jobs.

After getting raked over the coals -- pun intended -- by Greenpeace for relying on dirty fuel to power some of its massive server farms, Facebook has launched a PR offensive aimed at shoring up its eco credentials. In a report titled "How Dirty is Your Data?" that was timed to coincide with Earth Day, Greenpeace gave Facebook two "Ds" and an "F" on its energy policies.

"Facebook, which accounts for 9% of Internet traffic in the US and reaches nearly 73% of all Internet users, appears to lack the vision to become a company powered by clean energy," the report says. Other tech icons faulted by Greenpeace for contributing to global warming include Apple, HP and Twitter (which received three "Fs").

Shifting into damage control effort, Facebook immediately "friended" Greenpeace by sending the environmental group an April 21 letter underscoring that it is "fundamentally rethinking" how it consumes energy. The company notes that it has installed solar panels at its data center in Prineville, Ore., and is making additional investments in renewable energy.

On a special Facebook page highlighting its green initiatives, the social networking site trumpets everything from its water conservation to the bicycle program at is main campus.

To read more about Silicon Valley's track record on environmental -- as well as labor -- issues, see "High Tech, Low Standards" in the latest edition of National Journal magazine.

Business leaders joined administration officials Monday to launch an effort to spur more entrepreneurship and innovation.

The "Startup America" initiative comes in the wake of President Obama's State of the Union speech in which he announced the plan and urged Americans to "win the future" though increased innovation, education and manufacturing.

"Entrepreneurs embody the promise of America: the belief that if you have a good idea and are willing to work hard and see it through, you can succeed in this country," Obama said in his speech. "That's why we're launching Startup America, a national campaign to help win the future by knocking down barriers in the path of men and women in every corner of this country hoping to take a chance, follow a dream, and start a business."

Monday's launch event included Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and Karen Mills, administrator of the Small Business Administration, as well as other government officials.

Locke asserted his commitment to ending the backlog of patent applications and streamlining the process to encourage small startups.

The White House also announced increased corporate investment and support for startups from companies such as Intel, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Facebook.

Facebook says it will provide new companies with assistance building new apps and incorporating social technology. "We've bet big on startups, especially those who build social into their products from the ground up.," said Facebook's Douglas Purdy in a blog post Monday.

Two lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee urged the FCC Tuesday to ensure that smart electrical grid technologies can utilize unused spectrum between broadcast television channels known as "white spaces."

The FCC is set to vote Thursday on a final rule allowing for the use of white spaces for "unlicensed broadband wireless devices."

In a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Doris Matsui, D-Calif., urged him to "ensure a variety of technologies, including smart grid applications, are able to utilize this spectrum to advance our nation's clean energy needs."

They note that advances in technology can allow consumers to monitor their energy use in real time. Electrical utilities also could benefit from having access to white spaces, they added.

"Utilities will be able to better manage outages, reduce peak demand and gain more control over the decisions concerning resources," Eshoo and Matsui wrote, adding that it also could eventually allow for automatic meter reading and consumer alerts on energy outages.

Broadcasters, however, have voiced concern with the white space proposal and have been pressing for changes that would ensure there is no interference with broadcast channels.

The leader of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says contractors responsible for recycling government computers and other electronic equipment are not held accountable to certification standards and environmental regulations, NextGov.com reported.

In letters last week to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and General Services Administration chief Martha Johnson, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., expressed concern that the two agencies aren't doing enough to ensure the safe disposal of old computers and other equipment used by the government.

"I am concerned that the [GSA Federal Supply Schedule] does not adequately direct agencies toward companies with the highest e-waste recycling standards," Towns wrote. "I am also concerned that there may be a lack of direct oversight of e-waste recycling to ensure proper waste handling."

According to the Office of the Federal Environmental Executive, computer hardware has an average lifespan of seven years, but federal equipment typically is recycled after just three years. The government disposes of an estimated 500,000 computers annually. A 2008 Government Accountability Office audit found, despite EPA regulations, the companies responsible for e-waste often export electronics to developing countries, which dispose of them in unsafe conditions.

EPA has developed a responsible recycling, or R2, certification process for the safe disposal of e-waste. But only two of the 60 waste recycling contractors on GSA's Schedule 899-5 meet the R2 criteria, according to Towns. To read more, click here.

Government investments in cloud computing will contribute to the creation of a clean energy economy, the federal chief information officer said during Earth Week, Nextgov.com reported.

Agency CIOs are taking a cue from an October executive order that committed the government to lead by example in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, partly through energy-saving information technology. Federal CIO Vivek Kundra said on Wednesday that by consolidating data centers, working from home and sharing IT resources on an online-subscription basis -- or cloud computing -- agencies will become more environmentally responsible.

He likened the shift to Web-based computing to the emergence of the electrical grid and centralized water supply. "The old model went to duplicative and wasteful spending, when you had to have your own well and your own electrical generation capability. You had all this fragmentation that didn't lead to better resource utilization," Kundra said. "We want to shift to an environment where we can use computer power on demand."

If agencies don't start conserving computing power, the energy output from the federal government is expected to spike, he said. In 2006, computer servers exhausted more than 6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, and that number is expected to double to 12 billion by 2011, unless the government adopts green IT practices.

In February, Kundra sent a memo to agency CIOs on data center consolidation that noted the number of federal data centers grew from 432 in 1998 to more than 1,100 in 2009. Agencies are using only about 6 percent of their infrastructure, he said on Wednesday, and certain agencies are seeing a sharp rise in server demand on a seasonal basis. The Internal Revenue Service, for example, strains its infrastructure around the April 15 tax filing deadline. His memo directed agencies to develop data center consolidation plans that identify opportunities for cloud computing by June 30. The plans will be incorporated into fiscal 2012 budgets by Aug. 30. To read more, click here.